In the present investigation the authors consider practical implementation of role-plays in the course of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to engineering students. In particular the study aims at exploring students’ perceptions of role-plays as an effective educational tool in acquiring communicative skills in English. The authors outline the procedure for the practical use of role-plays based on relevant social issues. The paper presents a particular role-play devised and conducted in several groups of the first year engineering students. The role-play was followed by conducting a survey related to students’ perception, outcomes and self-evaluation. The authors analyze the results of the survey and present their conclusions based on the students’ feedbacks, suggesting a wide scope of possible implementations of role-plays to meet learning objectives. The role-play presented in the given research is focused on general English rather than professional topics as it was devised as a follow-up of several topics of the first year curriculum for non-linguistic departments. The survey revealed that all the students who took part in the activity managed to reach the learning objectives regardless of their English language proficiency, which gives the authors a reason tо claim that a role-play is an effective tool suitable for enhancing language skills in diverse groups of learners. Another conclusion the authors draw from the results of the conducted survey is that the usage of role-plays has its say in preparing learners for real communication and develop their interest in the language acquisition and self-reflection.

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